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More than any other European language English has been shaped by its contacts with other languages such as Celtic, Latin, Scandinavian and French. This is true not only of the vocabulary, but also of morphology and even phonology and syntax. But also the contact between different varieties of English played an important role, especially in the shaping of the Englishes outside England. The papers contained in this volume deal with such contacts from various points of views. Major topics are: the restructuring of lexical fields by borrowing processes in Old, Middle and Early Modern English, the influence of Scandinavian on the morphology, the influence of Latin on English syntax, the development of Middle English verse meter under Italian influence, the origin of spelling conventions, the role of code-switching and language mixing for the development of the language, and the role of language contact in general in Central Europe.
About the author
The Editors: Dieter Kastovsky, born 1940, studied English, Romance, German philology and general linguistics in Tübingen, Berlin, Besançon; Ph.D. 1967 in Tübingen; 1967-1973 Research Assistant in Tübingen (English Department); 1973-1981 Full Professor of English and General Linguistics in Wuppertal; since 1981 Full Professor of English Linguistics in Vienna (English Department); Visiting Professorships in Münster, Poznań, Stockholm, Tromsö, Cape Town, Georgetown University.
Arthur Mettinger, born 1956, is professor of English linguistics at the University of Vienna. Studied English philology, Slavonic languages and sinology in Vienna, Beijing and Moscow. Major research areas include syncronic English semantics and word-formation, lexicology and lexicography, contrastive linguistics (English - Chinese), and most recently, cognitive semantics.
